ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996 TAG: 9609200028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: RAY REED
Some football teams that begin their season by being splattered twice while giving up 84 points and eight turnovers react in a predictable manner.
They panic.
At Blacksburg, the hammerees in the aforementioned pair of poundings, the reaction was more low key but no less keenly felt.
``This is embarrassing,'' Indians linebacker Michael Davis said.
Davis and his associates on the Blacksburg defensive platoon appeared to have all the makings of Indians idols. They were the most seasoned and reliable players on a team that hopes to be a contender in its first Blue Ridge District campaign.
``We [defenders] expected to be able to carry the team until the offense gets going,'' said Davis, a 6-foot-2, 212-pound package of muscle and fast-twitch fibers. ``Then we give up 44 points in the first game and 40 in the second.''
Perhaps Davis is being too harsh on the defense. In the 44-6 loss to Giles especially, the Indians had a collective fainting spell. Accumulating 175 total yards, including 41 rushing, is not usually the mark of a vigorous attack.
Davis has a well-informed perspective on the situation, having played on both sides of the line of scrimmage in the dual debacles against Giles and Graham. Another player, center Sean O'Rourke, spoke to the team when its mood was darkest after the Giles game.
``I told them, don't get down, this is only the first game of the season, we have a most of the season ahead of us,'' O'Rourke said. ``Our district season is still ahead. This is just one game.''
That's the positive thinker's way of looking at it. Another view was offered by Vaughn Phipps, the assistant coach: ``It had to get better because it couldn't get any worse. If it does get worse, it's time to go find a job selling insurance.''
Hold those premium payments. The good-hands people are still in charge at Blacksburg.
At lesser programs, they get creamed their first two games and they go to pieces. At Blacksburg, they take the calmer, more studied approach. What did head coach David Crist think after the first two games?
``There's a lot of room for improvement,'' he said.
Blacksburg showed just how much it could get better when it outlasted Cave Spring 15-14 last week. Joey Carter caught a two-point conversion pass from quarterback Tommy LaForce after Davis scored the tying TD.
Davis was engaged to good effect defensively too, as he demonstrated with 22 tackles and four sacks.
``They kept running at me,'' he explained.
Raise your hand if any of this sounds familiar:
Team looks horrible to start the season. Team's fans start to feel queasy when they look at the remainder of the team's typically menacing schedule. Team plays better as it goes along, quietly qualifies for the playoffs, then surprises people who shouldn't be surprised because it looks nothing like the gridiron dud it was at the start of the campaign.
If you think this sounds like the history of Blacksburg football over the past 15 years, complete with the odd footnote and cross reference, you win a well-frayed blue and gold pompom.
The golden path to the postseason isn't what it used to be, though. These days, the Indians will be taking their war parties around to the outposts of the rugged Blue Ridge. The Blue Ridge is included in similarly rough and ready Group AA Region III, which bears little resemblance to Blacksburg's former home in Region IV, whose sparse population often presented few obstacles to the Indians designs.
Just how rugged the Blue Ridge is this season is anybody's guess, although Salem showed that it knows a thing or two about the game when it pile-drove Pulaski County 27-14 last week.
It so happens that the Spartans are next on the Blacksburg docket. Thoughtfully, the schedule makers provided the Indians with a week off before they visit scenic Salem.
``Can we use the time off?'' Crist said. ``Yes, we can use the time off.''
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB